Sterling Brian Bono

A U.S. official, heartened by the release of an American veteran who strayed into Cambodia last year, said Friday that he hopes "we can move ahead as well with repatriation of the remains of American servicemen lost in Cambodia during the Indochina war." Although remains of scores of Americans listed as missing in the war have been returned by Vietnam and Laos, none have been recovered from Cambodia. Washington has no official ties with the government in Phnom Penh.

A U.S. official, heartened by the release of an American veteran who strayed into Cambodia last year, said Friday that he hopes "we can move ahead as well with repatriation of the remains of American servicemen lost in Cambodia during the Indochina war." Although remains of scores of Americans listed as missing in the war have been returned by Vietnam and Laos, none have been recovered from Cambodia. Washington has no official ties with the government in Phnom Penh.

An American caught after entering Cambodia illegally 14 months ago has been handed over to the Red Cross and will soon leave the country, Cambodian radio said. Sterling Brian Bono, 36, of Las Animas, Colo., was arrested May 2, 1987, when he crossed the border, reportedly to look for a friend who has been missing in Indochina since the 1970s. Bono, in an interview with American reporters last week in Phnom Penh, said he served with an Army engineer unit in Vietnam in 1972.

The government of Cambodia announced Friday that it will release an American Vietnam War veteran arrested for illegally crossing the border more than a year ago. "The government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (Cambodia) has decided to release Sterling Brian Bono, an American citizen who was captured on May 2, 1987, while illegally intruding into Kampuchea," the official SPK news agency reported. The report did not say when Bono, 35, a native of Las Animas, Colo., would be released.

The official Cambodian news agency on Tuesday reported the capture of an American Vietnam War veteran who it said entered the Communist country illegally, possibly in search of missing U.S. servicemen. The news agency SPK, in a dispatch monitored in Bangkok, said a border patrol captured Sterling Brian Bono, 35, of Las Animas, Colo., on May 2 inside Cambodian territory.

The Cambodian government has the remains of "quite a number" of American servicemen killed in the Indochina war, according to Premier Hun Sen. "We are prepared to release them on the basis of humanitarianism," the leader of the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government said in an interview with The Times here this week.